Can we let the planet turn slowly into a dumping ground? No! Elisabeth Tricot and Nicolas Gluzman proclaimed. These citizens from Lausanne in Switzerland have decided it is time to take action. (Article from 24 Heures, on 24 July 2016)Read more

Don’t let the word ‘degrowth’ intimidate you because it’s definitely not about economic recession and deprivation of quality in our lives. Degrowth is a concept that has provoked environmentalists, social scientists, and economists long before it emerged as a major European intellectual movement in 2008 with the conference in Paris on “Economic De-Growth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity”. Read more

Consensus materializes around a very important fact: it is imperative that we move quickly to clean energy. However, even the best case scenario would not be enough to avoid climate catastrophe. Reason: the burning of fossil represents only about 70% of all emissions of greenhouse gases. The remaining 30% are from various causes that must also be addressed. Read more

A 14-year-old boy of Indian-origin has invented a low-cost portable Braille printer. Shubham Banerjee is now working with technology giant Microsoft to integrate Braigo drivers with Windows to make it easily accessible to the visually-impaired. Read more

The forest- residence 25 Verde allows its residents to stay in the heart of the trees and escape from the Turin urban homogeneity. And the city comes alive.

A combination of live trees and steel branches dresses this unique 5-storey building designed by Italian architect Luciano Pia. The structure consists of 63 apartments, each having a terrace and plants just beyond their windows and walls. Every variety of plant has been chosen tenaciously from deciduous plant life in Turin to give a big diversity of colour, flora, and blossoming.

The city comes alive

Above-ground, 150 trees absorb 200 000 liters of carbon dioxide per hour and protect residents from noise. The seasonal pattern of trees also offers a microclimate favorable to residents during cold or hot seasons. And then there are the varieties of colors and flowering.

This concept of vertical forest is booming in Italy. In a previous article, we wrote how it is evolving in Milan.

The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is in the process of recomposing much faster than expected, according to a British-American study, published recently in the prestigious journal Science.

The researchers did not expect such a conclusion: the last fifteen years, the hole over the ozone layer has shrunk four million square kilometres, which represents half the size of America. How to explain this “healing” of the ozone layer, in the words of American scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who led the study? “It would be largely due to the efforts of countries worldwide to stop using some pollutants gases, chlorine gases,” Susan Solomon told. “This is really a significant accomplishment for society. It is a global environmental dilemma, and we have put ourselves on a good trajectory,” Solomon added.

A significant accomplishment for society” – Solomon

These gases were, for example, in air conditioners, refrigerators, or aerosols. Mainly responsible for the weakening of the ozone layer, they have been progressively banned after the signing of an agreement by all countries in the world in 1987 known as the Montreal Protocol. And because they are less present in the atmosphere, the hole over the Antarctic is absorbed faster.

Scientists are quite optimistic for the future: according to their models at the current rate, the ozone layer will be completely reconstituted by 2050.

In a world where coal, nuclear and gas are still considered the main sources of energy, Germany managed to use the sun, wind, and rain to provide 87 percent of the energy needs of the entire country . This benefited the population.
This is an astonishing success which the industry does not expect. With a peak in the production of renewable energy, German households paid negative electricity prices. The electricity prices in Germany fell to -€ 30 megawatt per hour throughout the day. Read more

Underwater fauna and flora can now breathe. European institutions have finally decided to ban trawling in depths of over 800 meters. This decision is the result of intense negotiations that lasted four years. It thus open the way to recovery in European waters. Read more